Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
An image forming apparatus that includes a conveyance belt and a transfer roller has been known. The conveyance belt is in contact with a photoreceptor drum to form a nip. The transfer roller across the conveyance belt with the photoreceptor drum and is brought into pressure contact to the photoreceptor drum. When a sheet passes through the nip position, a transfer voltage of reversed polarity to toner is applied to the transfer roller. This transfers a toner image held on the photoreceptor drum to the sheet. A suspension roller is located at a downstream with respect to the nip position in a sheet conveyance direction. The suspension roller suspends the conveyance belt at a separation position where the sheet separates from the conveyance belt.
In some cases, the image forming apparatus includes a shutter that protects the photoreceptor drum to prevent a user from damaging the surface of the photoreceptor drum during a jam process or a similar process. A shutter driving mechanism drives the shutter in conjunction with open and close operations of an open/close cover on the side surface of the image forming apparatus. The shutter driving mechanism moves the shutter to a drum protection position in association with the open operation of the open/close cover. The shutter driving mechanism moves the shutter to a drum open position in association with the close operation of the open/close cover. At the drum protection position, the shutter covers the open/close cover side of the photoreceptor drum.